Chapter 8 - Ask for Caroline.
Richard stared at the name of his dead sister until Jennifer folded the paper again.
“No one uses Caroline's name casually,” he said.
Margaret looked frightened.
“I swear I didn't put that note on my bracelet.”
Jennifer believed her.
“You don't get to destroy one more thing tonight.”
“You think someone is helping you.”
“Someone is.”
“You have no idea why.”
Jennifer did not know whether that made it more dangerous.
Jennifer insisted they wait for Owen.
At 7:08 p.m., he had left the service elevator on the conference level, used a side staircase, and exited through a staff corridor at 7:17.
Owen returned to the hotel at 10:05 p.m.
Then Richard said, “I owe you an apology.”
“You owe me five years.”
Jennifer stepped between the history and the urgent problem.
“Did you send me the email?”
“I also put the note on Margaret's bracelet.”
“When?”
“In the elevator.”
“You were there?”
“I was behind the service panel.”
“There is a maintenance recess beside the freight controls.”
“I knew Daniel would use B2.”
Jennifer held up the address.
“What is there?”
Owen looked at Richard.
“Something Caroline arranged before she died.”
Richard went pale.
“My sister died in a sailing accident.”
“I know.”
“What could she have arranged?”
Owen hesitated.
“A contingency.”
Daniel suddenly laughed.
“This is insane.”
Owen turned toward him.
“You said the same thing when I told you Caroline kept duplicates.”
“Caroline suspected money was being moved out of one of the older Hale entities before her death.”
“She tried.”
“You were traveling constantly, and I was junior finance staff then.”
“She asked me to review irregular consulting payments.”
“Before I finished, she died.”
“And then?”
“Then the file disappeared.”
“Five years ago, I found part of the original trail again.”
“I brought it to Daniel because he was working in corporate development and had access to archived entities.”
“Instead, the file vanished and I was told the company believed I had stolen records.”
“Caroline had created a private deposit box through an attorney.”
“She used the code name Caroline because she believed someone inside the family office was watching mail.”
Jennifer asked, “What is in the box?”
“I know she stored copies of financial records somewhere.”
“Caroline left instructions that if anyone came with the phrase Ask for Caroline and the correct token, the sealed package would be released.”
“Caroline gave you that bracelet at your wedding anniversary dinner.”
“She told Ruth the engraved serial number would identify it.”
“I thought it was just jewelry.”
“That was the point.”
“My sister suspected fraud before she died, and she trusted Margaret with the key without telling her.”
“Fraud by whom?”
“Back then, Daniel was twenty-three.”
“He wasn't handling family accounts.”
“No,” Owen said.
“He wasn't.”
If Daniel had not started the original scheme, then someone else had.
“Who was Caroline investigating?”
Owen looked toward Margaret.
Margaret whispered, “Why are you looking at me?”
“Because the consulting payments Caroline questioned were authorized under the initials M.H.”
“I never worked for the company.”
“I know.”
“You should all stop before you open something you cannot close.”
Ruth Calder's daughter placed Margaret's bracelet beneath a small magnifying lamp.
She read the serial number.
Then she disappeared into a back room.
When she returned, she carried a sealed gray envelope and a small digital recorder wrapped in plastic.
Richard recognized his sister's handwriting on the envelope.
His knees almost gave way.
May you like
Across the front, Caroline had written one sentence.
Richard, if you are hearing this, the person moving the money is someone you love.
